Contest Details
Opening date: Tuesday 12th September 2023.
Closing date: Saturday 21st October 2023, midnight GMT.
Winners will be announced on the evening of Thursday 9th November 2023 at a venue to be announced; the event will be fun!
Following our previous competitions, Yours2Read is delighted to announce a new call. This competition is being generously sponsored by the KTDA: we are very grateful to them for their support, encouragement, and commitment to creative writing.
First prize will be Ksh. 30,000, and Ksh. 20,000 for the first runner-up, and Ksh. 10,000 for the second runner up. Entries will be judged by a panel established by the Kenya Writers Guild.
The theme for this competition call is tea, meeting the focus of the sponsor's business. This can be addressed in any way you like! But there must be a tea element in the story. Let's consider some examples:
-A conversation between strangers over a tea in a tea shop, with a twist in the tale,
-A story drawn from the history of tea in Kenya,
-A story set on a tea-producing smallholding,
-Romance, and how tea brings together a couple from different backgrounds, different careers, different aspirations and hopes for the future,
-A ghost story set on a tea smallholding,
-A tea farmer's dreams for his future, and for his family,
-Early pioneers in the tea business,
-The international world of tea,
-A tea farmer takes a holiday which does not turn out as expected,
-A tea farmer becomes a wealthy man, but does he find happiness?
These are just some suggestions: you can write your story in any way you wish, but tea must form a part, either minor, or major.
As in all previous competitions, authors retain full copyright in their work. In submitting your story, you agree that it will be made available to readers to download on the Yours2Read website, free of charge. You are free to withdraw your work at any time and without permission, and no copy will be kept.
Yours2Read will be sponsoring three parallel smaller prizes decided by downloads, as in previous competitions. These are automated and appear in the prizes box. This method does not evidence quality, hence the need for judging of all entries by a panel for the larger prizes sponsored by KTDA. Winners determined by downloads are not guaranteed to be winners when ALL entries are judged by the panel. Please submit your entry to the flash fiction category via your dashboard.
Entry requirements.
Submission of entries is via the Yours2Read website.
1. The story must be grammatically accurate with full use of paragraphs, commas, and full stops. Please use Times New Roman, font size 14, 1.5 spacing, justified on both sides. Good grammar is vitally important.
2. There must be a front-page picture or photo which illustrates a central theme in the story (don’t include a photo of the author). The picture can be uploaded via an author’s dashboard. Do not provide personal information other than your name or pen name.
3. The word limit is 3000 words and should not be less than 2000.
4. In submitting a story you give legal assurance that it is your own work (you own the copyright).
5. At the end of your story, please include the words ‘Entry for the September 2023 competition’. Without this any work posted will be deemed a general posting to the platform and will not be considered for the competition.
Good luck!
The Yours2Read Team.
Kenya Tea Development Agency: Improving the welfare of smallholder tea farmers in Kenya.
We support the reading and writing culture in Kenya, and the objectives of Yours2Read.com and Writers Guild Kenya.
.jpg)
